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Martin Luther King Jr.'s influence on the Civil Rights Movement
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The gory bloodshed that occurred on the smoking Civil War battlefields still continues one century later through the shrill gunshots of discriminating words and brutal maltreatment that wound the dignities of African Americans. The calamitous Civil War, which morphed into a fierce struggle to raze slavery following the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, bore the sweet fruit of African American freedom through the blossoms of the 13th, 14th, and 15th constitutional amendments. This fruit of freedom, however, was stunted in its growth as blacks continued to be verbally beleaguered and physically assaulted while their freedoms were stripped from their grasp. By 1963, the Civil Rights Movement had risen in response, with Martin Luther King, Jr. standing firm at its forefront, to halt this interference of African American liberty-fueled growth. …show more content…
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The diction leads blacks to abandon the past, the anaphora instills in their minds a memorable cause, and the metaphors lastly fabricate the necessary movement toward freedom and equality through vivid imagery. Such a remarkable speech outshines others of the movement, for its triumph is contributed not only to its zealous vocalization but also to its well-written text. A catalyst for the racial revolution of the era, King’s speech is continued to be used as inspiration in resolving modern complications. The man who declared, “I have a dream,” is thus memorialized for having envisioned righteousness to become part of the American
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “I Have a Dream.” Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Adam Whitehurst. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 687-690. Print.
King proceeds to the latter part of his speech by declaring the need for peaceful resistance. His analogies of man “carving highways of death in the stratosphere” (3) and how non peaceful defiance will contribute to “a civilization plunged into the abyss of annihilation” (3) soundly depicts his ideals of how African Americans should reach true freedom and equality only through pacifism. He mandates this passiveness in order to bring about change insightfully because his goal is not to wage war against their oppressors but to defeat the evil sentiment held by the nation. King’s remarkable aptitude and brilliant intuition in his dialogue enables the reader to appreciate and concede to his ideals.
When the Government Stood Up For Civil Rights "All my life I've been sick and tired, and now I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. No one can honestly say Negroes are satisfied. We've only been patient, but how much more patience can we have?" Mrs. Hamer said these words in 1964, a month and a day before the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. She speaks for the mood of a race, a race that for centuries has built the nation of America, literally, with blood, sweat, and passive acceptance. She speaks for black Americans who have been second class citizens in their own home too long. She speaks for the race that would be patient no longer that would be accepting no more. Mrs. Hamer speaks for the African Americans who stood up in the 1950's and refused to sit down. They were the people who led the greatest movement in modern American history - the civil rights movement. It was a movement that would be more than a fragment of history, it was a movement that would become a measure of our lives (Shipler 12). When Martin Luther King Jr. stirred up the conscience of a nation, he gave voice to a long lain dormant morality in America, a voice that the government could no longer ignore. The government finally answered on July 2nd with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is historically significant because it stands as a defining piece of civil rights legislation, being the first time the national government had declared equality for blacks. The civil rights movement was a campaign led by a number of organizations, supported by many individuals, to end discrimination and achieve equality for American Blacks (Mooney 776). The forefront of the struggle came during the 1950's and the 1960's when the feeling of oppression intensified and efforts increased to gain access to public accommodations, increased voting rights, and better educational opportunities (Mooney). Civil rights in America began with the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, which ended slavery and freed blacks in theory. The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 were passed, guaranteeing the rights of blacks in the courts and access to public accommodation. These were, however, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, who decided that the fourteenth did not protect blacks from violation of civil rights, by individuals.
King met society with the civil rights movement and with his famous I have dream speech. King showed “the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation”. In the opening of King's speech he uses metaphors to compare the promises of freedom made in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the failure of these documents to procure the freedoms for all.
In hindsight the build-up to 1963 is obvious; the tension had grown rather than diminished since the Emancipation Proclamation as new laws were enacted but slowly carried out or blatantly ignored. The centennial of the Proclamation was approaching, and the lack of follow-through by both Republicans and Democrats, in both the South and the North, brought disappointment, frustration, and anger. President Kennedy promised changes to housing discrimination but did not sign them into law until two years into his term and was not specific enough for it to bring actual change (p. 8). The black population’s faith in the government waned as they saw countries in Africa rebelling after World War II, the nearly nuclear war of the 1950s, and the Great Depression that lingered even longer for them than for the struggling white public. They were witnessing fighting and determination around the world without experiencing any liberty of their own. The struggle was a daily reality for the individual, and that fa...
The author of the “I Have A Dream” speech is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King, known for his work in Civil Rights during the 1960s. In this informative speech, Dr. King inspires individuals to have a change in both white and black citizens during the Civil RIghts era in the United States. Moreover, the premise of the speech is that both sides of the discussion must accept change in a non-violent yet effective way. He spoke about the injustices of segregation and discrimination of black citizens that was occurring in our nation. As he opened, “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation,” he explained what he was there to do for all citizens. He is
The Civil Rights Movement had a timeline of events from the 1940’s with events that are still occurring today. During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights of black people in America improved greatly. The first even from the 60’s was on February 1, 1960, when four black students were at Woolworth’s lunch counter and was denied service. Because of this these four men began a non-violent protest or sit-in, this display created a chain reaction and many more non-violent protests throughout the south. Six months later, however, these four men were eating at the same lunch counter they were originally refused service at. In April of the same year the SNCC or student non-violent coordinating committee was formed, which gave the young black people a place in the Civil Rights movement. The following year on May 4, 1961, student volunteers were testing the new segregation laws buy riding the buses and trains, they were known as “freedom riders”. During this time the freedom riders were attacked by angry mobs along the way, this led to CORE, or Congress of Racial Equality. In 1962, the first black student enrolled at the University of Mississippi, James Meredith, this caused such violence and riots President Kennedy sent in 5,000 federal troops to handle the situation. In 1963, August 28th, approximately 200,000 people joined together in Washington where they heard Martin Luther King’s famous “I had a Dream” speech. On Septembe...
In Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, King makes use of an innumerable amount of rhetorical devices that augment the overall understanding and flow of the speech. King makes the audience feel an immense amount of emotion due to the outstanding use of pathos in his speech. King also generates a vast use of rhetorical devices including allusion, anaphora, and antithesis. The way that King conducted his speech adds to the comprehension and gives the effect that he wants to rise above the injustices of racism and segregation that so many people are subjected to on a daily basis.
After the Civil War, with the protection of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, African Americans enjoyed a period when they were allowed to vote, actively participate in the political process, acquire the land of former owners, seek their own employment, and use public accommodations. Opponents of this progress, however, soon rallied against the former slaves' freedom and began to find means for eroding the gains for which many had shed their blood.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important voices of America, who used non-violent methods to fight for freedom and equality for all in his nation. On August 28th, 1969, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., King delivered his most iconic speech “I Have a Dream.” In this speech, repetition, ethos, pathos, and logos are used to persuade the audience about the importance of the Civil Rights Movement. To create the greatest demonstration for freedom, he used these literary devices to “dramatize a shameful condition” (“I Have a Dream”). Although his life was taken away, his legacy continues to live on today.
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial more than two score years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King electrified America with his momentous "I Have a Dream" speech. Aimed at the entire nation, King’s main purpose in this speech was to convince his audience to demand racial justice towards the mistreated African Americans and to stand up together for the rights afforded to all under the Constitution. To further convey this purpose more effectively, King cleverly makes use of the rhetorical devices — ethos, pathos and logos — using figurative language such as metaphors and repetition as well as various other techniques e.g. organization, parallel construction and choice of title.
Although the United States has gone through a lot of phases that have made drastic changes in how we live today, such as the 1920’s, the Great Depression, and WWII, the Civil Rights movement is ultimately the most significant era as traces of that turbulent phase still remains till this day.
In his speech, he proclaimed a free and better nation of equality and that both races, the blacks and the whites, should join together to achieve common ground and to support each other instead of fighting against one another. King’s vision is that all people should be judged by their “personality and character and not by their color of skin”(‘I Have a Dream”). All points he made in his speech were so strong that lots of people were interested in his thoughts. He dreamed of a land where the blacks could vote and have a reason to vote and where every citizen would be treated the same and with the same justice. He felt that all Americans should be equal and that they should forget about injustice and segregation. He wanted America to know what the problems were and wanted to point out the way to resolve these problems.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most famous "I Have a Dream" speech was delivered to 250,000 civil rights supporters during the march on Washington DC in August 1963, it is credited with mobilizing supporters and prompting the 1964 civil rights act. The italicised quote that Houston et al. have chosen suggests the theme of the thesis, but because the quote has been taken from one of the most powerful and globally significant speeches in history and is from the most famous paragraph in that speech, it actually does so much more. The authors chose - “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all men are created equal’.”. This quote communicates their articles theme and it also communicates their ideology. By using this quote the authors align themselves with it and their research with the concepts and values it portrays. However, the authors are not only aligning themselves with the quote, they are also aligning themselves and their ethos with the Man, his ethos and the whole speech he made that day. This is because the speech is so famous and the paragraph so well known that readers can be expected to absorb so much more from the epigraph than just the thoughts, feelings and sense of theme delivered by the quote itself. When Martin Luther King,
On the day of his “I Have a Dream” speech, King stood upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial located in the heart of our nation’s capital. This location was essential to King’s success because it was a symbol of our nation’s historic efforts to abolish the enslavement of African-Americans; an act which was made possible due to the valiant efforts of Abraham Lincoln. As the preponderance of the speech began, King made reference to the former president in what Peter Paris said was a “Declaration proclaimed to America on behalf of all African people”. King stated, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice” (I Have a Dream 2). Through these words, he was able to mimic the tone and style of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address while also evoking remembrance of the nation’s harsh past. The signing of one such bill, the Emancipation Proclamation, was the first time in history that African-Americans were able to progress in the social order. King tied this into his argument by introducing the concept that other laws could be enacted in order to allow the African-American population to continue